Posted by Chris Davis - UT on Sunday, April 01, 2007 at 11:00:42 :
In Reply to: O.T. honoring our veterans and POW's - a non P.C. letter posted by Doc Dave on Sunday, April 01, 2007 at 08:00:53 :
(quote AP)
BRIGHAM CITY, Utah (AP) -- A member of the famed "Doolittle Raiders" who bombed Japan in 1942 is dead.
Lieutenant Colonel Chase J. Nielsen died Friday at his home of age-related causes.
He was 90.
The Brigham City resident was a navigator in one of the most daring air raids in American history.
In April 1942 sixteen B-25 bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and bombed Tokyo.
Nielsen and his crew ditched the plane, which was running out of fuel, off the coast of China. He spent more than three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. Nielsen was one of four P-O-Ws from the raid to survive. Four others died.
The raid, planned by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, was the subject of the book and movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and the book "Four Came Home."
(End quote)
I had seen an interview he did with one of the local news stations last year, but never met him.
You make an excellent (and seldom taught) point about the use of the bomb and the lives saved by ending the conflict without a mainland invasion.
I think few folks questioned it at the time... nowadays we fight wars with lawyers reviewing each move. I think most of the nation just doesn't feel a real threat like WWII... I wonder what it will take to feel that urgency?
Chris
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